


Antoine Stargaze

by HogwartsToAlexandria



Series: Marie's Stony Shorts 2019 [23]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Deaf Tony Stark, First Meetings, Fluff, Hard of Hearing Steve Rogers, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, M/M, Mime Artist Tony Stark, Mute Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Pre-Slash, War Veteran Steve Rogers, smitten boys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:40:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22101946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HogwartsToAlexandria/pseuds/HogwartsToAlexandria
Summary: The white makeup on the man's face looked a bit smudgy around the lips as he kept diving into the mountain-like ice cream in front of him - sweet tooth, cute - and the black highlights of his eyebrows had seen better days too, it was August after all. Steve glanced at Natasha, finding her staring right back at him this time.He coughed, "What?""Nothing."He didn't like the smirk on her face all that much.Or where boys are smitten, and Natasha nudges Steve just enough.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Marie's Stony Shorts 2019 [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1649599
Comments: 6
Kudos: 118
Collections: 2019 Captain America/Iron Man Holiday Exchange





	Antoine Stargaze

**Author's Note:**

  * For [frosted_astronaut](https://archiveofourown.org/users/frosted_astronaut/gifts).



> Merry Christmas dear! I hope you'll enjoy where I went with your prompt 😘

"Oh it's that guy again," Natasha huffed. 

Steve looked up from his half-eaten chicken nuggets, surprised out of whatever reverie he'd been so deep in. He followed Natasha's gaze to the other side of the diner, to one of the booths along the main window. He tried to hide it, he really did, but he couldn't help the little smile forming on his face when he saw him, _the man_ , so he pretended he'd got ketchup on his chin to hide behind his napkin - not the best hideout but his friend was too busy staring across the restaurant to notice anyway. 

The white makeup on the man's face looked a bit smudgy around the lips as he kept diving into the mountain-like ice cream in front of him - sweet tooth, cute - and the black highlights of his eyebrows had seen better days too, it was August after all. Steve glanced at Natasha, finding her staring right back at him this time. 

He coughed, "What?" 

"Nothing." 

He didn't like the smirk on her face all that much. 

"Eat your rice or spill the beans but don't look at me like that." 

"You were staring." She said simply, then indeed took a forkful of her curry rice. 

"So were you." Steve slid the pad of his index finger over his nose, clicking his tongue before biting into his own food again. 

"Ah ah, Rogers, not like that and you know it." 

"Dunno what you're talking about." Steve just kept eating - anything but meet her gaze again, like that would make any difference. They'd both pretended there was nothing there for long enough he guessed. She was tired of it, probably. 

"I didn't know you were into dolled up guys." 

"Do--" Steve choked a bit, "uh?" 

"Oh _come on!_ Please stop playing dumb and talk to me, I'm bored." 

"There's nothing to say…" Steve started, but he could feel his cheeks warming up under the levelled stare Nat threw him. "He's…"

"Super annoying? Follows people around making rude gestures? Never makes a sound?" 

"That's kind of in the job description though." Steve smiled. 

"Which part?" 

"Hm, all of it?" Steve laughed at the way Nat shrugged, waving her hand in the air between them impatiently.

"Stop deflecting." 

"I-- fine! I like him? I'm intrigued by him? I… yeah. Ok. Let it go now, thanks." 

Just then, as Steve could tell Natasha was gearing up to ask yet another question, trying to push him into expanding onto the matter, the man who owned the shop - James? Rhodey? Steve had heard both - walked up to the mime with a pitcher of coffee, nothing unusual there, but the motion he made… his free hand cupped in an arch and rolling forward until it was upside down, the man's eyebrows up, and his friend's (maybe?) answering grin, all without a sound being exchanged sent a sharp jolt of warmth within Steve. 

"What? What did you see? You're smiling like a loon." Nat interrupted his train of thoughts once again, her voice nonplussed and her face just as indifferent when Steve met her gaze. 

"Nothing." Steve's smile froze with nerves, his cheeks probably pinkening on the spot when the next thing he knew, he was caught in the gaze of the man who'd been like a net all around his thoughts for quite some time, more a warm balm than a maddening wave and that was rather nice. 

He quirked an eyebrow at the wink the mime gave him, his whiskey brown eyes dulled by the distance and yet still sparking joy Steve could feel at the tips of his fingers and ears. Damn. The effect this man had on him with only his gaze, it dazzled him every time. And even though the occurrences were starting to get numerous, the first time Steve had seen him remained anchored in his memory the most. 

_Going to he VA every other day came easy to Steve by now, three years back from the war. His hip was still aching and he couldn't quite remember a time where his ears didn't bother him like they did on the daily nowadays, courtesy of that last bomb that had sent him home on a stretcher, but he felt good, better than even._

_Steve's smile only grew as he crossed the street to get to the main entrance of the building. He'd never seen that man before… the one standing on a bucket? Right by the door, making mock-salutes to each vet going in; exaggerating his frowning when they flipped him off, his head covering his mouth and his eyes wide; grinning with all his white teeth that somehow managed to appear even brighter than the traditional white mime makeup when they said hi or even just met his gaze._

_When Steve finally reached him, he caught the sight of a name tag on his vest and grinned -_ Antoine Stargaze - _totally made up, beautifully poetic. Steve looked up, and laughed when the mime tapped his tag, winking at him._

_"Morning Antoine,"_

_The man had tried to bow, still standing on his bucket and would have fallen over save for Steve's reflexes - Steve caught him mid-fall forward, steadying him with a hand on both the man’s arms._

_"Hey there," Steve caught himself whispering as they stood like that, their faces much closer than was appropriate. He laughed when the man, his arms still securely set in Steve's grip, raised his hand deliberately slow, and gave a rapid wave of his fingers. "Here you go."_

_Steve helped him straighten up to his previous spot, grinning and, admittedly, staring a little, before he cleared his throat. The man didn't look up from where he was dusting off his pants, so Steve waved this time._

_"Hope you have a great day, Antoine."_

_The man squinted at him a bit, then smiled, and waved back._

Steve toyed with his hearing aid, he only got the one, in his left ear, a pale blue one like the cloudy skin of spring he so liked to gaze at. 

"You should go ask him out if you're so hung up on him." Natasha once again snapped him out of his musings, her tone acerbic and yet not fooling Steve for a second. 

"Do you know something?" 

"I know I haven't seen you like this since the beginning of you and Peggy." 

Steve hummed. That had been a while and a half. 

"I also know," Natasha added, pausing for suspense, the meanie that she was, "that Rhodey over there? Was Air Force like you." 

"He was?" Steve looked at the man, still standing by his friend's table - there really weren't a lot of people to attend to this afternoon so he guessed that was pretty normal. His back was turned to then but Steve could see his arms moving, a hint of his hands animatedly crossing out of the screen of his body to prove Steve he hadn't dreamed the motion earlier. 

"You really think I should?" Steve asked, letting his inner turmoil fully show for the first time, his eyes going back and forth between Natasha's, and _Antoine_ 's face. 

"I really do." She smiled, "You know he's _actually_ annoying with everyone but you right?" 

"He's not--"

"He pushed Sam's water bottle up, he was _drinking_ from it." Natasha cut him off. 

Steve narrowed his eyes at her. "It's August, he was scared Sam was too hot, so he helped him out." 

She crossed her arms over her chest. "He pulled Buckets pants up yesterday. "

"He wears them too low anyway." Steve replied, petulant even to his own ears. 

Natasha laughed, her head tilted up for a brief instant. "Sure thing big boy. Just…" she waved her hand as if to shoo him away, " _Go_. Your lovesick eyes are ruining my lunch."

"Fine." Steve got up, "But if he sends me away with a kick in the ass, I'm crying on your lap all night, and takeout's on you." 

All Natasha replied with was a thumbs-up, and another forkful of her rice making its way to her lips. 

He played with his hands all the way to the two men, repeating the oath of enlistment in his head over and over again in his mind. His therapist would be proud. Bucky too, even though he'd probably make fun of his nerves, the ass.

"I… er, hi," Steve stalled by _Rhodey_ 's side, shrinking on himself when the man stared at him, halfway through a glare before he took him in and laughed under his breath. 

"Hello again, Captain," the man said, shooting a glance towards Antoine. He seemed to hesitate for a second and while Steve wasn't the smoothest man around, he thought he understood that one so he turned towards the mime still sitting in his booth and signed. 

"Nice to see you again." 

The man's eyes widened, always comically accentuated by the makeup, even as smudged as it looked today, and his friend laughed again. 

He angled himself facing him again and signed as well, "Well, then, I've got work waiting for me in the back." 

And then he winked, and then he was gone. And Steve's heart hammered in his chest. 

And the man waved him down, pointing to the seat in front of him.

"Actual mute?" Steve smiled when he remembered just sitting and staring probably wasn't the best course of action. Antoine raised his eyebrows at him and Steve felt his cheeks flushing right away - damn those eyes. "Damn, sorry, none of my business." 

He bit his lip, his hand going back to toying with his aid, carefully still but oh he was a mess. 

The man smiled. "You don't do this often, am I right?"

"Do you?" Steve pursed his lips in self-deprecation. 

The man shrugged. "Sometimes." 

"Is Antoine your real name?" Steve tilted his head, his eyes following the rapid motions of the man's next signs. 

"What's yours?" 

"Steve, I'm Steve, Rogers." He spelled. "Hard of hearing, can't hear much without the aid, even less when I'm tired." He added then, figuring if he was going to start off his first real conversation with the man that had him so hooked on so little with invasive questions, he might as well show himself too. 

It took a second but then, the man's smile came back, and with only a slight stutter, his hands weaved words through the air once more. 

"Anthony, Tony for most people I know, the annoying mime guy for everyone else." He gave Steve a half-sheepish, half-cheeky smile and Steve had to mentally pinch himself not to start mooning again. 

"Well, I, for one, like the mime act." Steve admitted, and subsequently delighted in the short, breathy laugh it earned him. 

"See, that would be because I've let you be. The others haven't been this lucky, not that you're..." the man's hands paused, before starting again, faster and jerkier than before, "I mean, not that that makes you lucky I… you know, damn. Anyway." He passed his hands in his hair. 

Now Steve allowed himself to moon. So he wasn't the only nervous one, uh. 

"It does. It does make me lucky. And, Tony, if you'd make me even more lucky, I'd love to… have a drink somewhere? Or coffee?"

"Somewhere?" Tony signed shortly, his eyes so expressive in their relief and amusement Steve felt it all wash over him, giving him the strength to _play it cool_.

"Yes, you know," Steve gave a pointed glance to both the bar counter and his own booth, where Natasha was still pretending to eat the last hints of food on her plate, "Somewhere none of our friends are hawking over us." It was Steve's turn to wink, even though it made his ears flame red, he knew. "What do you say?" 

Tony drummed his fingers on the table, his gaze piercing through Steve. His face split into another chuckle. 

He signed back, miming Steve's stance, "What do you say?" He grinned, "I say that sounds rather pleasant Steve."

And Steve couldn't contain the mirth inside him. 

And that is how, Steve Rogers and Tony Stark started dating. A mime and a vet, laughing silently, hand in hand and lips marked white with Antoine Stargaze's makeup. 

Unexpected happiness. They took it in stride. 

  
  



End file.
